Sameko asked in confusion: "What kind of consequences?"
"The remaining enemies in the fortress laid down their weapons and surrendered to us after receiving orders from General Wilhelm, commander of the 11th German Army." Sokov explained to Samyko and Konev: "If we shoot
If we kill them and other Germans find out about this, do you think they will surrender to us? By then, in order to eliminate these stubborn enemies, we will have to make greater sacrifices and have wasted more time."
"Comrade Sokov is right!" After listening to what Sokov said, Konev unexpectedly expressed his support: "If the German soldiers who put down their arms and surrender are shot, it will have a negative impact on our reputation.
If we encounter such a tough battle in the future, it may not be easy to get the enemy to surrender."
"But, Comrade Commander." Seeing Konev's support for Sokov's statement, Samyko became anxious: "Are we just going to watch these latest executioners who committed crimes against our people get away with it like this?
?”
Konev laughed, stood up, walked to Samyko, raised his hand and patted him on the shoulder, and said with a smile: "General Samyko, since the enemy has laid down his weapons, we will definitely not kill him."
But when they arrive at the prisoner-of-war camp in Siberia, whether they can survive until the end of the war is beyond our control."
Seeing that Konev's ideas coincided with his own, Sokov also smiled on his face. Konev's words were so clear that Samyko still thought about it for a while before he figured out the truth.
With an expression of surprise on his face, he said excitedly: "I understand, Comrade Commander. After these prisoners of war are sent to the prisoner of war camp in Siberia, someone will naturally deal with them."
He paused for a moment and then added: "The names of those German officers and soldiers who have put down their crimes should be written down and handed over to the people in the prisoner of war camp so that they can give these people 'special care.'"
Seeing that Samyko finally understood what he meant, Konev smiled and said: "You are right, General Samyko. Not only can the comrades in charge of the prisoner of war camps be used to deal with these damn Germans; even in
During the escort, if they make any small mistakes, they can be punished mercilessly."
Konev raised his hand and looked at the time, and said to Sokov: "Comrade Sokov, since your troops have basically controlled the fortress and railway terminal, I will rush back to the front army headquarters as soon as possible to give other troops
The troops have assigned new combat missions."
Sokov knew that his troops' capture of the Merefa Fortress was only the first step for the troops to advance towards the Dnieper River defense line. Next, it would be the turn of the troops of the 7th Guards Army to launch an attack on Poltava.
Together with Samyko, he personally sent Konev to the door of the headquarters.
"Comrade Sokov," Konev stretched out his hand to Sokov and said with a smile: "Your troops have no combat missions for the time being, so just rest peacefully. Keep your spirits up and wait until new combat missions are issued.
Only then can you devote yourself to new battles with full enthusiasm."
After sending Konev away, Sokov ordered Samyko as soon as he returned to the headquarters: "Chief of Staff, call the artillery commander immediately and tell him that the artillery of the 7th Guards Army will be back in service soon. Let him
Be prepared in advance to avoid being caught off guard.”
"Okay, Comrade Commander." Sameko nodded and said, "I'll call the artillery commander immediately."
While Samyko was on the phone, Sokov sat down and began to think about William Stemmermann. He vaguely remembered that half a year later, in January 1944, the German 8th Army's 3rd Army
The 11th Army and part of the 42nd Army, with a total of six divisions and more than 60,000 people, were surrounded by the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts at the protrusion in the Kanev area on the Dnieper River. The surrounded troops included elite Vikings
The armored divisions, as well as the Walloon Assault Brigade, for the convenience of command, these besieged troops were all integrated into Stemmermann's German Army Group, under the unified command of Artillery General Wilhelm Stemmermann.
In order to prevent the tragedy of Paulus from happening again, Marshal Manstein, the commander of the German Army Group South, mobilized heavy troops to relieve the siege of the Stemermann Group. On February 10, under the command of Armored General Hube, the German troops concentrated
The 100,000 armored troops of the 3rd Armored Corps and the 47th Armored Corps conducted an arduous rescue operation, but were stubbornly blocked by the four Soviet tank corps. Coupled with the warming weather, the ground became muddy, and the armored forces attacked
blocked.
The battle lasted until February 15. After six days of bloody fighting, the German troops who came to the rescue dealt a heavy blow to the Soviet troops and opened a passage. However, they themselves also suffered heavy losses. Not counting the loss of more than half of the troops, the armor commanders above the platoon also suffered heavy losses.
They suffered almost all casualties. They were less than ten kilometers away from the German troops in the encirclement, but these last ten kilometers were out of reach for the German troops who were trying to rescue the encirclement. It turned out to be a journey that they could not complete in their lifetime.
Journey!
After receiving the report from the commander of the rescue force, Manstein had no choice but to send a telegram to William Stemmermann, telling the other party: "The strength of the rescue force has been exhausted, and your ministry can only rely on its own strength to carry out operations."
Breakout!"
After William Stemmermann received this telegram, he fell into despair. Because among the surviving officers and soldiers, there were more than 2,000 wounded. If he wanted to break through, these wounded would have to be abandoned. After a fierce battle
After an ideological struggle, he decided to leave some medical staff to take care of the wounded and surrender to them when the Soviet troops rushed over to save the lives of the wounded.
The rest of the besieged troops will use the cover of night and blizzard to protrude from the Soviet encirclement at 23:00 on February 16.
More than ten hours before the breakout battle began, the Soviet army sent representatives to persuade them to surrender, hoping that Wilhelm Stemermann would order the troops to lay down their weapons and surrender, but the Soviet army's proposal was rejected by him.
After receiving the reply from the representatives who persuaded them to surrender, Konev said to everyone in the headquarters: "Comrades, we have given the Germans a chance to surrender. Since they do not cherish this opportunity to survive, then we do not need to treat them again.
You're welcome. Give orders to all commanders and combatants: destroy every enemy you see."
Both Konev and Vatutin expected that the Germans would carry out a breakout operation in the near future. In order to deal with possible breakout operations by the Germans, they carefully set up a five-layer closed encirclement and three obstacles:
The first level of encirclement: all infantry units of the Second Ukrainian Front, approximately 200,000 commanders and combatants;
The second level of encirclement: all infantry units of the 1st Ukrainian Front, approximately 300,000 commanders and combatants;
The third level of encirclement: all artillery units of the 1st Ukrainian Front and the 2nd Ukrainian Front, approximately 200,000 artillery commanders and 2,000 artillery pieces;
The fourth level of encirclement: all tank units of the 1st Ukrainian Front and the 2nd Ukrainian Front, approximately 200,000 tank troops, and 1,000 tanks.
The fifth level of encirclement: all cavalry units of the 1st Ukrainian Front and the 2nd Ukrainian Front, approximately 100,000 cavalry commanders and combatants.
The first obstacle: the natural barrier, the deep Gniloytiki River. As the weather began to get warmer in February, there was only a thin layer of thin ice on the river. People and animals could not walk on it. They could only walk on it.
Swimming in the freezing cold river, all the bridges and boats on the river had already been blown up or burned down by Soviet engineers.
The second obstacle: On the other side of the only shallow water area of the Gniloytiki River, the Soviet army set up two tanks and 20 heavy machine guns to kill those German officers and soldiers who had better water resistance and slipped through the net to prevent them from entering the fifth barrier.
The garrison area of the German armored units that came to rescue the siege from kilometers away.
The third obstacle: All fighter units of the two air groups of the First Ukrainian Front and the Second Ukrainian Front, about 500 fighters and bombers, are on duty 24 hours a day in rotation, closely monitoring the movements of the German troops on the ground. Once discovered,
As the German troops gathered, they destroyed them with powerful air-to-ground firepower.
In order to successfully break out of the Soviet encirclement and join up with the incoming armored forces, General Stemmermann drew up a careful breakout plan. He divided more than 50,000 German officers and soldiers into two echelons to implement the breakout.
The first echelon consists of the most elite SS Viking Division as the sharp breakout force, and the 72nd Infantry Division and the B Army Group implement the auxiliary breakout. Their task is to quickly open a gap in the Soviet defense line.
The second echelon consists of the German 57th Infantry Division, the 88th Infantry Division and the 389th Infantry Division. They will quickly follow up and break through after the gap is opened.
In the end, General Wilhelm was responsible for the rear covering force. He personally selected a rearguard battalion from the SS's most powerful Viking division. He personally commanded this battalion to cover the transfer of the main force.
After learning of William Stemmermann's breakout plan, Mustache ordered the Air Force to send a transport plane to take him out of the encirclement for his safety, but General William Stemmermann refused, saying that he would
His soldiers fought together until the last moment. He ordered transport planes to carry the wounded and sick, and send out as many as they could.
Thinking of this, Sokov thought of Petrovsky, commander of the 63rd Army in the early days of the Soviet-German War, who led his troops to launch a counterattack in Belarus and gave the Germans a head-on blow. However, due to the disparity in strength between the enemy and ourselves, he
The troops soon fell into a tight siege by the German army.
In order to protect an excellent commander like him, Zhukov and Marshal Timoshenko decided to promote him to the commander of the 21st Group Army after research and sent a plane to pick him out of the encirclement. But he believed that at this critical juncture, he would give up the command
Transferring them to others would have a serious negative impact on the soldiers. In the end, only the seriously injured were allowed to be taken away by plane.
"He is an opponent worthy of respect." Sokov murmured: "It would be great if he could listen to our advice and personally lead his troops to surrender to us."
"Comrade Commander," Samyko, who had just made a phone call, happened to hear Sokov talking to himself when he came over, so he asked curiously: "Who are you talking about who just surrenders to us?"
Samyko's words awakened Sokov from his meditation. He looked up at his chief of staff and said: "Comrade Chief of Staff, since William Stemermann ordered the troops in the fortress to surrender to us, let me
I think he is an opponent worthy of our respect.”
Regarding Sokov's statement, Samyko was silent for a long time, then nodded and said: "Comrade Commander, you are right. If there were another German commander, he would definitely order the defenders in the fortress to fight to the end.
A person, with his last bullet, will never easily lay down his arms and surrender to us. If we want to seize the fortress, we will definitely pay a heavier price."
"Comrade Chief of Staff, what if..." Sokov was afraid of any contact with Samyko, and quickly emphasized: "I'm talking about what if. What if the troops commanded by William Stemerman fell into our
Encircling them, if you want to eliminate them, you will definitely pay a heavy price; but sending someone to persuade him to surrender can save both sides from unnecessary casualties, which one will you choose?"
"Does this need to be said?" Samek replied without thinking: "We must have sent people to persuade Paul to surrender. Didn't we send people to persuade Paulus to surrender in the later period of Stalingrad?"
"But did the Germans agree?"
"No." Samek shook his head and said with a wry smile: "How could a stubborn German general like Paulus surrender easily?"
"You are right, Comrade Chief of Staff." Sokov continued: "Although William Stemermann cherishes the lives of his officers and soldiers, he is also a stubborn German general. Even in desperate situations,
Faced with our army's persuasion to surrender, he will never agree."
"Then what should we do?"
"Since the enemy will not surrender, then we will destroy them." After Sokov said this, he changed the topic to Nedelin: "By the way, you called the artillery commander, what did he say?
.”
"General Nedelin said that he is ready to hand over the command and will hand over the command as soon as the order comes."
Sokov said "hmm" and then said: "As soon as General Nedelin hands over the troops to friendly forces, let him return to the headquarters immediately."
"I'm afraid that won't work."
"Why?"
"General Nedelin said that since our army has captured the fortress, he wants to go inside the fortress to see the effect of the artillery bombardment."
"No, this is absolutely not possible." Hearing this, Sokov raised his voice and said to Samek: "Although we have captured the fortress, who can guarantee that there are not a few German soldiers who want to fight to the end in those ruins?
What? If they shoot at General Nedelin, the consequences will be very serious."
"Comrade Commander, it's useless." Samek said with a wry smile: "I tried to persuade him in the same way on the phone just now, but he was very stubborn and I couldn't convince him at all."
Sokov understood Samyko's statement very well. If Nedelin was not a stubborn person, then in a few years, he would pay the price with his life because of his stubbornness.
Sokov thought for a while, and then said to Samyko: "Comrade Chief of Staff, can you contact Comrade Military Commissar? I think he might be able to come forward and persuade General Nedelin."
"It's useless, Comrade Commander." Samek said: "Although I haven't dealt with General Nedelin for a long time, I found that he is a very principled person. Once it is something he is sure of,
No one could convince him."
Sokov was completely speechless when he heard that Lunev was unable to persuade Nedelin to take action. In any case, the opponent would soon serve as the artillery commander of the Southwest Front Army. Before leaving his place, he must not let him
He makes no mistakes.
Thinking of this, Sokov said to Samyko: "Comrade Chief of Staff, then send more people to follow him to ensure his safety. Do you understand?"